The Fate of a Certain Sword
by The4Ryan9
Summary: One-shot/Story idea proof of concept. A fate route Shirou who had been fighting for years ends up in Toaru and, after a time continuing to fight warlords and opressors there, ends up in Academy City learning that his Reality Marble is similar enough to an Esper ability for the two to be mistaken as one another. Will not be updated, if you wish to adopt idea PM me.


**AN: One of several stories where I wrote only a chunk of it and have no real plans to return to it in the** **foreseeable** **future. The reasons vary but in this case it's because I simply don't know enough about A Certain Magical Index/A Certain Scientific Railgun/A Certain Scientific Accelerator. I only realized how expansive the lore was when researching for this and I didn't have enough motivation or time to learn it all for this. Not to mention I have many ideas I'd rater do.**

 **The idea for the story is pretty simple, and at least half of it isn't entirely original. Part of it is based on the idea that Espers and their abilities are similar enough to those possessing a Reality Marble that they could be the same, and that a level 6 Esper is one who can actualize their Reality Marble, so when Shirou shows up that's what he becomes, the first level 6. Now I've seen this idea put forth before but the spin I put on it was making the Shirou I used old, really old. Now this isn't one of those times where it's a broken OP as fuck Shirou who has been living a century or two but still looks like Archer, this Shirou is from the one route where his body will not only age normally but that heavy wounds can permanently cripple him, Fate. He's over 40 years old and the constant battles plus the lack of Avalo regeneration means his body has gotten weaker over time even as he's grown more skilled. The second factor of his age is that he hasn't seen Saber since the Fifth Grail War, and that has it's own sort of wear.**

 **Alright last thing on this story, I don't plan on continuing this story, this will for all intents and purposes be a one shot. However if someone wants to take my idea and do something with it, PM me. I don't like the idea of adoption on this site, more often than not it leads to someone taking over a story and then they fail to update it, or such a drastic shift in tone and story plans as to be disconcerting. However if you do want to run with this story PM me, we can talk about my ideas for the story, what you want to do with it and once your first chapter is up I'll post the story and author name at the bottom of this chapter.**

 **Lastly next weeks post. I should be home by the evening of the day I post this so I can have time to fully write a real chapter this time. From the Game to the Grail Chapter 3 is up next and I fully expect it to be done and done well on time.**

"Passport." Glancing at the uniformed man behind the counter I handed him my passport along with several other papers I'd need to get access to the city. The man had seemed rather tired in his demand, and I could empathize with the feeling. It was early in the morning, just before 6 am, and while I had always been something of a morning person the jet lag from my trip was hitting me fairly hard.

I watched as he halfheartedly eyed the papers as he slotted them into some kind of machine. While he was probably supposed to do a manual check in addition to the one the computer would be running it wasn't my business to interfere, and besides, the papers were fakes anyway. Though despite their origins I had no doubts they'd get me into the city. While the birth certificate I had given the man was false everything else had been established legally using that as a basis, and they had all worked several times before.

"Step up to the full body scanner, you will be checked for weapons, explosives, and esper abilities." The man's words were an automatic response more than anything, probably having given the speech hundreds of times before.

"Wait, what was that last one?" While the first two were familiar enough to me, so familiar that I had actually snuck some through scans like these in the past, I had only heard vaguely about the third. "Esper abilities? I didn't know there was a way to check if someone had those." What little I knew about esper abilities had me thinking they were some kind of sorcery trait or overly specialized magic circuit. While it was being studied as a science here it could easily just be a form of magic that scientists had managed to observe and manipulate.

"Yeah," the security officer seemed as confused as I was when it came to all this, "something about aim fields being active even when they're not doing anything. All I know is that the light goes red for bombs, orange for weapons, yellow for esper abilities, and green for the all clear." As he spoke I looked above my head to see a small light about the size of my fist, it was one of those signaling lights that could flash different colors to convey different meanings. There were several others I couldn't see from my place in the scanner but I'd know I was clear to go when this one turned green.

And of course, it was as I was having those exact thoughts, that the light went an unmistakable shade of yellow.

"Your name is Emiya Shirou, correct?" I nodded my head at the question, I had actually been taken to a side room for interrogation. The security guard that had been screening me had seemed surprised when the light came on, and though he almost called reinforcements immediately after seeing my own confusion at the results he had me scanned again. When the light when yellow for me he called someone to take me here. Now I was here being questioned by a young woman with her blue hair drawn into a ponytail. She was actually wearing full riot gear, a tactical jacket with many pouches for useful items, a bullet proof vest, gloves, knee, elbow, and shoulder pads. The only equipment she seemed to be lacking was a riot shield, she even had a large caliber pistol holstered at her side.

Though despite her clothes her attitude was laid back and casual as she questioned me. She held a clipboard in front of her, likely all the information they had managed to find on me in the last couple of minutes along with what my own documentation. "It says here that you're forty two years old, how does someone get white hair so young?" Forty two, damn, it's been twenty five years since I saw her, hasn't it? Shaking that thought away I sought to answer the question.

"It's apparently a genetic disposition. I never knew my birth parents so I couldn't be sure but I never found an alternative answer and several doctors told me that was it." I ran my hand through my hair as I spoke. Though it had been many years since I had discovered the identity of Archer it still came as a shock to wake up one day and find myself looking so much like him. While my skin wasn't as dark as his own and my eyes still had a few flecks of color I looked far more similar to the Heroic Spirit of the bow than the boy I had been during the war. "And you say that as if I was young."

"You're only as old as you feel." While the woman had a joking attitude I could see she was being cautious. Her hand wasn't near her gun, no it wasn't anything that obvious. It was the way she watched my own hand movements, waiting to see how I'd move so she herself could react that gave it away.

"Then I should probably add a few decades to that number." Though I laughed as I said it I was being honest. By the root I was tired, though I had prepared myself for this life I hadn't known it'd be so long. In the end that was fine though. This is the only path. There are no regrets.

"You aren't that old yet. Though that does beg the question, how does someone as old as you have an esper ability?" It was with her last words that I felt her mask fall away as she grew serious. "These kind of abilities have only been around for just under twenty years, and they've always manifested themselves in young children, so how does an old man have one? We know it wasn't a faulty machine, they've been running diagnostics on the thing ever since you left and everything has come up clean."

"Ah, I'm not actually sure what to say, I don't even have a very good idea of what a esper ability is, or how I'd have gotten one." The woman looked at me, it was a hard look as she probably tried to tell if I was lying or not. Whatever she thought must have been good enough because she merely answered my questions.

"An esper ability is the power to change the world around you to reflect your own personal reality. It is the ability to draw on inhuman powers like teleportation or pyrokinesis. There are many abilities but they all manifest themselves with the aid of AIM, an involuntary movement. The scanner from before found that you put off these AIM, it's actually rather interesting the scanner thought your AIM was made of metal."

If the metallic AIM, whatever AIM is, wasn't enough the first description of esper abilities cinched it. 'The power to change the world around you to reflect your personal reality.' She was talking about a Reality Marble, even if she didn't know it. And it seems my interrogator also recognized my revelation. "It seems you've thought of something then."

"Err, yes, I suppose I have. It's actually rather embarrassing to be honest. I had thought that my abilities were magic." And in my own world they would have been, but this wasn't my world, here they were apparently science. "Ever since I was young I've been able to change the world around me, it was only when I was seventeen that I was able to accomplish anything with it though." Lies sprinkled with truth. I had begun learning magecraft when I was young, from my adoptive father Kiritsugu. It was when I was seventeen, during the Grail War, that I began to use my own unique magic, projection. And it was several years later that I discovered that I had a reality marble.

"And what is it that you can do?" I raised my hand before thinking better of it and pausing. Looking towards the woman with a gun I saw her note my hesitation before she nodded. Continuing I allowed my od to flow through my circuits before creating a blueprint and then filling that with the prana I had produced. The whole process took just under a second and while I could have done it much faster there was no need to in this environment. In the end I was left with an ordinary iron sword in my hands.

"I create swords, or more accurately weapons. The closer to a sword it is the better I can do, and the less it takes out of me. Something too complex like a gun is impossible though, too many small things that could go wrong." As I spoke I allowed the sword to fade away and looked towards my interrogator.

"Hmm, in that case that would make you a gemstone. Though rare a gemstone is one who has managed to achieve an esper ability without the use of drugs or treatment. Though one your age is unheard of it is not impossible." As she stood she turned and knocked on the door leading out of the room. Though the room was more of a lounge than a prison there had still been guards outside. "You'll be able to enter the city since the rest of your paper work all clears, though you'll likely have to take a system scan, nothing more than a series of tests to determine your level as an esper. We can't make you take them, but we'd appreciate it if you did, and if you want any help learning about your ability you'll need to."

Thinking it over there really wasn't much I could lose by taking the test, it'd tell me more about how they understand reality marbles, and it wasn't like there could be many of them in the first place. "Alright, I'll do it. Where should I go?" The woman motioned for me to come so I followed her out of the room and into the hall as I awaited my answer.

"We'll head into the city to do it. There are plenty of places you can go to to get your level assessed. While most of them are at the various schools around the city several are at research facilities in the city. I'll be taking you to one of them." She pausued and turned to look at me without slowing her pace. "My name is Yomikawa Aiho, for the time being I'll be your guide I suppose." As she introduced herself she extended her hand.

Grasping the proffered limb I spoke. "Nice to meet you Yomikawa-san, as you know I am Emiya Shirou. I'll be in your care." As I let go she led me on further, stopping for a moment to drop off her kevlar vest and handgun with one of her co-workers she continued while still wearing the rest of her tactical gear.

"So what brings you to Academy City Emiya-san? We don't let a lot of people in, have to keep tight security around here."

"I actually came to become a student, though really I only planned to take a semester worth of classes before going back to work. I'm a repairman, and while I've been able to get by off my old knowledge all the new technology from Academy City is starting to make my job harder." It was true enough, honestly all the stuff had been making my real job, saving lives, harder. I had learned how to deal with simple firearms decades ago, but defeating giant killer robots and mech suits? That was much harder and with how damaged my body had become over the years I wasn't sure I could keep doing it without learning a bit more about how to fix them, and by extension how to break them.

"So you figured to go to the source and figure out just how all of it worked?"

"Yes, I was planning to enroll in some college courses on advanced mechanics and engineering, I'd still like to but I'm not sure just how much this esper business will change." As I spoke we exited the entrance checkpoint to find a rail station. While I had no clue where I would be going from here my guide moved quickly and effectively through the crowds as I followed.

"You could always get a job with that esper ability of yours. In fact a lot of places in the city here will want to hire, if only because your an older man who also has esper abilities." We boarded one of the monorails and moved off to the side of the entrance to stand, it was fairly empty due to the out of the way stop we were at and the time of the morning.

"True, but I enjoy my job as a handyman. It's nice to be working with my hands and helping people."

"Nothing wrong with that, though you may be able to do that here, though we've got geniuses of all kind it's the simple stuff that they tend to slip up on. Not a whole lot of plumbers or car repair men." As we rode the monorail our conversation began to devolve into this sort of meaningless chatter. I could see the city through the window of the train. It was large enough to put my home town of Fuyuki to shame, with its skyscrapers being far taller and many many times more numerous than those of the city I was raised in. The windmills that dotted its hilly surroundings only served to improve the sight. The city itself was large enough enough to qualify as an independent, if small nation.

"Come on." Yomikawa-san spoke as she stepped off the monorail. "The lab where you'll be tested is down this way. The team there was informed of the circumstances before we got on the train so they should be ready to test you. They actually managed to get permission to use Tree Diagram to calculate the test results."

"Tree Diagram? What is that?" It sounded important but I'd honestly never heard of the thing before. Probably another esper thing, probably should have done more research on that stuff before coming to a city based around them.

"It's a supercomputer, the most powerful one on the world. It's normally reserved for special experiments but I guess you're unique enough of an existence to warrant using it." Hearing that I was beginning to regret taking this test. While I doubted I had anything to hide that didn't mean I wanted the attention I was apparently garnering. But it's not as if I could back out now, especially if I was such a big deal for them to pull out this Tree Diagram thing.

Entering the building I was almost immediately whisked off to a large plain white room. It was then that they began to ask me about my abilities and to demonstrate them. It started simple, project one sword then two, then two dozen. Projecting them so that they would launch at several dozen meters per second. Moving the projected weapons in a circle around me. It was then that we got into my more exotic abilities. I even projected mystic codes and noble phantasms, merely claiming that, 'since I believe in their effects they have them'. The scientists had gotten somewhat antsy when I showed off my body of swords. And while under normal circumstances I would be hesitant at best to show off so many of my skills I had been assured no one would know of my powers beyond my assigned level and that I could create swords.

"That's enough Emiya-san." I barely recognized the voice, I had been so caught up in my projections that I got tripped up when I was told to stop. "You can stop now, if you exit out that door you should find a break room on the left, Yomikawa-san will be there with some food, we'll get you the results after lunch." I looked over towards the camera that was placed in one of the rooms corners before nodding and leaving the room, making sure to dispel all my projections before I left.

I found the indicated room easily enough, it had tiled floors with several round tables with chairs. One side of the room had a counter running in the space that wasn't occupied by the fridge and stove present. There at one of the tables sat Yomikawa-san with two take out containers. And it was only as I smelled the food that I realized how hungry I had become.

"Thank you Yomikawa-san, I hadn't realized just how hungry I was." Looking towards a clock that hung above the counter I noted that it was already past noon. "I didn't realize it was already that late."

"Yeah, the system scan doesn't normally take that long but they usually have records from former scans to add to their data. It's kinda like a checkup at a doctor, if they have records from checkups every year prior they don't have to look at as much as they do when they get a brand new patient."

Grabbing one of the containers and splitting the disposable chopsticks I began to eat as she spoke. Though I had never liked take out food much there was a reason why people say that hunger is the best spice. "So rather than just looking at a couple of things to ascertain for changes they need to check over everything, to see how my ability works and what level I should be assigned. Actually what level do you think I'll get? I'm not sure how the rating goes."

My question seemed to give the woman pause. While I couldn't be sure she probably had a lot of experience with espers, after all she was obviously either part of a tactical police force, or military. There was simply no other reason for her to carry around such dangerous equipment. And if she was then she would obviously get involved with a lot of the more dangerous espers in the city.

"Probably on the higher end of the spectrum. The rating for espers is a little weird to be honest. While all the high level espers are really powerful that's more of a side effect than an actual part of their level. Your level is more of an assessment of the level of power behind your ability than the power of your ability itself. Afterall, it wouldn't make sense if someone with a weak ability couldn't grow past level one." I nodded along to her words, if the levels were merely a measure of how dangerous an ability was it'd make sense for it to be impossible for a non-threatening ability to always be low level. But levels were an estimation of how advanced your ability had become. If your ability was naturally weak you could still grow to a high level, even if that meant you were weaker than people who were lower level than you.

"Though your ability seems to be quite strong the part they're gonna be looking at is how strong your abilities are. Like having two people with electrokinesis, while they both have similar abilities it'll be the one able to put off the most voltage and control their electricity the best that gets a higher level." It was as she was speaking that a man in a lab coat came in. He walked right to Yomikawa-san and handed her a folded piece of paper before leaving.

"Ah, this is actually it here, your level assessment. We're actually trying to keep this under wraps a bit until we decide how to handle you. You are a unique case, after all. So no one has actually read your system scan yet." She then began to unfold the paper before pausing a moment and looking back towards me. "Actually, it's your level, here. You read it first."

Grabbing the paper as she handed it to me I unfolded it and scanned the page. While most of it was technobabble and terms I had no clue to the meaning of it wasn't hard to find my level. It was then I realized another problem. "What, is there an issue with your level? It didn't come out as zero did it?"

Looking back towards Yomikawa-san I realized my distress must have been obvious enough for her to notice. Shaking my head I began to speak. "No, it isn't that. I just have no idea what a good level is or how high they go." Using one hand to scratch the back of my head I used the other to hand her the paper back. It was as she took the page that I voiced my question. "So what exactly does level six mean?"

* * *

Apparently it meant a whole lot. While the initial reaction I had gotten was a lot of disbelief and even a bit of panic. When that began to fade it was immediately decided that this would be top secret for the time being. The only ones that knew right now were myself, Yomikawa-san, her top level superiors, and the head scientist at the lab I was tested at. Apparently until now the highest level esper in the city, or in the world rather, was only level five. And if it was true that every esper actually held a reality marble or the potential to acquire one that'd explain why. Whatever that Tree Diagram was it'd been able to determine that I can fully enforce my reality upon the world based only on what I had done in that testing room. Honestly that was terrifying, I was worried it'd be able to find out some of my other secrets if I gave it too much.

After that people had wanted to use all sorts of drugs and treatment to try and raise my own level. They thought that since I had managed to reach this high of a level without any of their treatment that with it I could grow to level seven. I doubt it'd have worked, there probably wasn't any level past my own if my understanding of espers was right. And while I didn't tell them that I did say I didn't want to take any sort of drugs or therapy. While I had assumed people would still push for the treatment or even try and drug me in secret everyone seemed to give up almost immediately. Some even started trying to placate me. It almost seemed like they were scared of me. They might be actually, if level five was the strongest they knew it wouldn't surprise me if they thought I was some kind of god.

It was after that that someone put forth a suggestion I was able to follow through on. While they had given up on using me in experiments to grow my own level they had quickly come up with the idea of using me to raise up the level five espers. And while I had declined to promise them anything I had agreed to meet with some of them to see about raising their levels on my own terms. I had no idea how I'd go about such a thing, even in my own eventful life I had never met another human with a reality marble, they were simply that rare in my world. Sure I had encountered a few dead apostles with them, but there had never been a chance during the constant life and death struggles to sit down and talk about just how their abilities worked. Honestly I just wanted to meet them, people whose distortions could rival my own, I'll try to show them how to properly use those distortions but in the end it's something that you can only teach yourself.

That was how I found myself sitting on a park bench waiting for some of the cities level fives to arrive. Apparently there were seven of them, and while most were either difficult to reach or would simply refuse contact they had been reasonably sure in their ability to get three of them to meet me even on such short notice. I hadn't been waiting for more than fifteen minutes when I heard someone approaching. Or based on the way they were bickering with each other I should say two of them.

"I don't see why I have to go, if you hadn't been there I could've just brainwashed those old fogies into just sending you."

"And I wasn't going to let you get out of this if I have to go. I just don't see why we had to go over together. We could've easily taken different routes."

"Aw, did you not want to see me Misaka-san! How mean."

The two I saw approaching down the path were just who I had been expecting. The third and fifth strongest levels fives, Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki. I hadn't been told much about either of them, only being given a terse description of their abilities, their names, and their ranking.

"Oh-ho, who's this? You know old man, this part of the park is closed. Anti-skill is supposed to be keeping anyone uninvolved out." As she spoke I saw her hand slip into the bag she carried. The girl was tall and, er-developed, for her age. With long blonde hair and star shaped pupils she was outfitted in a tan school uniform and white lace gloves and stockings. Next to her was a smaller girl with short brown hair in a similar uniform with plain white socks in place of the other girls fancy lace.

Looking back towards the blonde girl I saw the remote she had pulled from her bag just as she spoke. "Why don't you go ahead and tell me who you are what you're doing here." As she pressed the button on her remote I steeled myself. Relying on what I knew about her powers and my little past experience with psychics I prepared myself. It was a tricky thing, defending from a mental intrusion. While there were some Noble Phantasms I had that could protect me I couldn't rely on them, having them constantly projected and at my side whenever dealing with this girl just wasn't feasible. The mental strain would be significant, and the strain on my circuits made the idea completely untenable. So I had to rely on more mundane methods.

The biggest weakness of a psychic was that when they read your mind it was kind of like reading a book while someone was talking in your ear. In this case the talking was whatever that person was thinking at that moment while the book was everything else, memories, secrets, plans, everything in your mind. The trick to defending yourself was to yell in their ear. Hard. That meant strong constant thoughts, while you could think of a person a place, or even some mundane object one of the strongest defenses were memories. Memories were easy to use as recalling them is easy enough. And everyone has strong, important, memories, one we can recall at a moment's notice in the greatest of clarity.

So as this girl invaded my mind I thought of my past. Not of my reasons for coming to this city or my arrival in this world. Not of my time in clock tower or the grail war. Not even of those nights watching the moon with my adopted father. I thought of prior to all that. I brought forth my earliest memories, memories of fire and death. It wasn't even a second before she dropped her remote, flinching back from the hell she had witnessed. I couldn't blame her, no one had survived that fire, not even me. Whoever I was before the fire died in it, and Shirou Emiya was born as I walked through the fire, discarding everything that made me human.

"Though you could've been more polite in asking it I suppose I'll answer you regardless." I spoke as I stood up, lifting myself off the park bench and turning to look at the girls. "My name is Shirou Emiya, and I am here to help you raise your level."

I could see the surprise on the brown haired girl, Misaka Mikoto based on what I had been told. Whether it was from my words or the actions of her fellow level five I had no way of knowing. That was quickly replaced with a look I could only call determination though. "And how exactly are you planning to do that? You don't look like a scientist. You told us your name but that doesn't answer any questions."

The girl was being defensive, and I could easily understand why. Even without the blonde girl's, who could only be Shokuhou Misaki, reaction I was still a suspicious figure. A man my age with dark skin and white hair? I was abnormal in any part of the world, I doubted anyone would even believe that I was actually born in Japan.

"Well, I thought we could try some training. I don't doubt that you two have trained before but a new perspective may help. And as for some context, I'm an esper who just came to the city today. My ability allows me to create swords, and I am level six." As I spoke I noticed that Shokuhou had calmed down some, and that instead of the shock that had come from what she had seen in my mind there was a healthy bit of fear and caution. Misaka however, reacted differently.

I only had a moment's notice before a blast of electricity shot towards me. The only sign of the oncoming attack the way the girl's eyes narrowed. That moment was more than enough. A sword appeared, almost a foot above my head and to my left, even as it formed it shot forwards with a speed just below the bolt that was headed towards me. I couldn't actually track the lighting with my eyes, it was too fast for that. Instead I followed Misaka's aim and the smell of ozone she emitted as she formed and directed her attack. The sword intercepted the lightning before planting itself in the dirt, grounding the charge as the sword began to glow red with heat. "That was also fairly rude. Is it children these days, or just this city?"

"Well it's not like there was any other way of you proving that you were an esper, you're a little old for this." It was as she spoke that her hand reached into her pocket, drawing out what my reinforced eyes were able to recognize as an arcade token. "Though even if you're an esper you oughta be a lot more impressive if you've reached the esteemed level six." It was then that she did something odd, she flipped the coin. I only recognized what was about to happen as it fell and I could feel the electricity build up on the back of my hair.

"Rho Aias!" Chanting the shield's name I brought the seven petaled shield forth. The shield used by Ajax the Great in the siege on Troy, the only shield capable of stopping the javelins of Hector. Every petal on the shield was as powerful as the greatest of fortress walls. It was the strongest defensive Noble Phantasm I possessed short of that, and it was more than capable of stopping some of the strongest attacks I had ever witnessed. Misaka's own attack didn't fall short either, despite using something as mundane as an arcade token she built up an electric charge so potent to launch it as supersonic speeds. Rather than a projectile moving through the air all I could see of her attack was an orange line streaking through the air impacting my shield. It was orange because the air friction had actually melted the metal.

It impacted Rho Aias with a deafening boom and almost immediately it drilled a hole through the first petal. From there the coin simply failed to maintain a solid form and exploded into molten bits. Despite the mundane metal the sheer force behind it managed to shatter a second petal before the force dissipated.

That honestly had me surprised. While I had expected the level fives to be strong I hadn't anticipated this much. When I was told I was a level above them I had expected them to struggling to understand and utilize their abilities. Like how I had had to learn to project, to analyze my opponent's weaknesses before choosing the weapon most suited to defeating them. I had expected them to be aware of their abilities but still learning how to apply them. This girl had more raw power than I did. Less versatility than my swords, and less skill than I had, yes, but more raw power, more energy in those two attacks than I had in my body. It was then that it made sense.

"You're doing it wrong." While the electrokinetic in front of me seemed surprised at my defense, both the form it took and the power behind it, she appeared more surprised at my words. "Not your electricity, or that shot of yours." I elaborated on what I had meant. "But your powers in general. I didn't know much about espers before today, and when I was asked what an esper was I was told two things, 'it is the power to do inhuman things', and 'the ability to force our own personal reality on this one'. You are undoubtedly skilled and powerful at the first. But you're lacking in the second. You've accepted too much of this world, compromised too much. We who are distorted are not the ones who are wrong, it is the world itself that is. So we change it."

Taking a deep breath I drew out more strength in an act that had almost become subconcious due to how many times I had done it. I prepared myself for the influx of power I would feel as I spoke.

"I am the bone of my sword."

To anyone else the words would have been meaningless at best and confusing at worst. But when I spoke them they were truth. A truth so profound that even as the world disagreed with me I overrode that with my own reality. Had I continued to chant I could do more, even creating my own reality, but I stopped there and allowed the power that flowed from the words to expand out in a trick I learned by accident, in a failed attempt to deploy my reality marble.

Fire spread from my feet, it was no large wave of fake flames as would accompany my true ability but just smoldering grass. As it burned away the grass beneath me it was replaced with packed earth. Even the concrete sidewalk was replaced. The effect was temporary, just like my projections, it was almost entirely aesthetic as well, I had found no use for the change aside from removing hazardous terrain or traps, but it was what was planted in that dirt that was useful. Swords. They were mostly ordinary steel blades, but in the dozen square meters around me that had been cleared by fire they sprouted from the ground like tombstones, almost thirty of them.

With a gesture of my hand they rose, flying into the air behind me prepared to fire. Unlike in my reality marble they were not replaced with new blades as they rose, nor was the movement without a cost in prana, however it was a useful ability and the swords that came were random, I could not choose which ones came to my aid, though they were most often ordinary weapons, due to the sheer volume of them that I had seen. Though I did note an electric based mystic code in this batch, a fairly weak sword, even compared to other mystic codes.

Dismissing the swords I had just called I looked towards the two girls in front of me. "Now, let's see if I can teach you two to do something similar."

"Let's start with who you are anyway!" It was Misaka-chan who had asked the question, it seemed my demonstration hadn't made her any less angered. "You said you were a level six, but last I knew you weren't even a level five. I didn't even know there were any espers as old as you anyway!"

"Well that's because, until this morning, no one knew I was an esper. Not even myself. I've had these abilities since I was young, younger than you are now, though they were much weaker than they are now, similar to how yours used to be I'd bet. I thought it was magic, and in a world without espers what else was I supposed to think." Though to be fair it was magic, whether or not scientists had managed to observe and document it didn't change that.

"And I never kept up with much tech news so while I'd heard of espers I'd always imagined psychic abilities. I only learned that I was an esper this morning when they detected AIM waves coming off me when I was trying to enter the city. When they tested my abilities I turned out to be level six. Now all the scientists and politicians want to see if I can use my methods to create another level six or if it was just a fluke."

"And how do we know that you're telling the truth?" The question came from Misaki-chan this time. "Or that there wasn't an error in your test or something? The idea that a level six just pops out of nowhere after everyone in the city has been trying so hard to produce one is a little far fetched."

"I actually asked the same thing when I was told. I was brushed off pretty quickly though, everyone had a lot of faith in this Tree Diagram thing, I've never had an interest in computers so I couldn't tell you why though." I shrugged as I spoke, catching the confused stares I was getting from the two girls and the way they glanced at each other I felt my own brief confusion before brushing it off as unimportant.

"As for trust, while I can't tell you to trust me you can trust Anti-Skill right? They had their blockade, any of them can tell you that I'm supposed to be here and their officers know why too." Seeing that they were still being cautious about me I decided to go for one final push. "Besides, it's not like I'm gonna make you do anything dangerous, mental exercises and maybe a little playing around with your abilities, that's it."

Turning back around I walked back over to the bench and sat down. While a few years ago I wouldn't have been willing to sit down until all other potentially dangerous parties had at least dropped their own guards my own age was catching up with me. I lacked the physical strength I had when I was young. And while my reinforcement was better than ever I lacked a strong body to use it on. Old wounds were catching up on me, it was only the miracles of magecraft that kept me on my feet and I had lost access to such treatment when I arrived in this world.

"Why don't we start with a friendlier Q&A session. I've been briefed on your names and abilities but not much more, and it's polite to introduce yourself anyway." Leaning back and relaxing as I saw the two in front of me calm down I kept speaking. "I'll go first, as I said my name is Emiya Shirou, I'm forty two this year and I work as a mechanic. I spend my time off doing disaster relief in some of the more war torn parts of the world. And I have the ability to make swords and other simple weapons."

"My name is Misaki Shokuhou." I caught the glare she got from the other girl as she introduced herself. I had noticed the animosity between the two earlier though I had no clue how bad it could be. I could only hope it was closer to a friendly rivalry and not something that could turn deadly. "I'm a middle school student like Misaka-san. I'm known as Mental Out and have the ability to read and control minds." Nodding at her introduction I looked to the other girl here to see her rubbing her forehead in annoyance.

"What is this, a class introduction?" I barely heard her comment with how quietly she was speaking. "I'm Misaka Mikoto. I'm fourteen and in middle school. I'm known as the railgun and have the ability to control and generate electricity." This time she spoke louder and introduced herself despite her obvious distaste for the activity. "So what are the mental exercises you were talking about?"

"It's rather simple actually. But first I need to know how you perceive your own abilities." While I had been told what esper abilities were and how they worked it had always been by scientists or the Anti-Skill member that had taken me to be tested. Never by an esper themselves, and if they were like me it was their own perception of their abilities that would influence their strength. There was a reason why we magus used self hypnosis. There were only three things that mattered when it came to magecraft, the technique behind the spell, the power you put into the spell, and your own belief in achieving the effect. And when it came to reality marbles belief mattered way more. In fact, technique doesn't really matter for reality marbles. It helps to have one though, a routine where our own belief in it increases the power of that belief, but not necessary. I had always believed you needed an eight line aria to actualize a reality marble. However a certain teacher at Clocktower told me that the Rider of the fourth war, Iskander, deployed his own reality marble with only one line. And several dead apostle ancestors I had encountered in my own world had deployed their own reality marbles in other ways.

"As espers we create AIMs, automatic involuntary movements, that subtly influence the world to activate our own abilities. We use these movements to manipulate the world to create our desired effects." It was Misaki who gave me the answer, one so close to that which I had received from Yomikawa that I knew that they must've gotten it from the same source. One that was also oh so subtly wrong.

"Close but not correct. We don't manipulate the world as it exists but change it to suit our needs." I saw the girl furrow her brow.

"What's the difference?" Misaka-chan asked the question, the girl didn't seem too ecstatic about me denying their understanding of their abilities.

"The difference is in what we're doing. If we were manipulating the world as it exists then we're causing the natural world to do something, launch electricity, invade someone's mind. If we're changing the world then we are the cause of the occurrence itself, we know that we're changing the world because of all the things we do that don't occur in nature, swords don't just fall from the sky, no animal in nature can control another's mind." It was kind of like the difference between a marble phantasm and a reality marble. A marble phantasm could only be possessed by someone who understood nature so well that they could adjust it in the smallest way and cause huge changes, it was essentially the butterfly effect, but a reality marble was different.

"Alright, but why does that matter to us?' I looked to Misaki-chan as she spoke. "I mean, if all you're going to do is explain how your abilities work you'd be better off having a couple of scientists listen, how is this supposed to strengthen our own abilities?"

"It's about how you perceive your abilities. What I've found over the years is that for people like us only two things matter, how much energy we can use on them and how much we believe in our ability to do all this, how strong our distortion is."

"Our distortion?"

"Yeah," I looked to Misaka-chan as she spoke, "what else could we be, people, ordinary humans, who believe in our abilities to such an extent that we gain the strength of gods? I don't know what it is, but you two, all espers, should have a distortion."

"The fire." Misaki spoke in barey above a whisper but I had refined my senses over the years that even without reinforcement I could hear her just fine.

"Kind of, that really isn't my distortion itself but rather the point in my life when I stopped being human." I thought back to that moment, despite how many years had passed I still remembered it in perfect detail, there were few things I could say that about that weren't swords.

"If you're not human then what are you?" Misaka's words were harsh, she seemed to be losing patience with me. Ha, whatever happened to respecting your elders.

"Well, I'm a sword."

* * *

Washing my hands in the warm water of the bathroom faucet I took a moment to cup some water in them before splashing it in my face drying it off and looking into the mirror. My declaration of what I was hadn't gone over too well. Misaka seemed to get even more frustrated while Misaki simply pretended to agree with me before moving to change the subject, in other words common practice for dealing with a crazy person. From there I had managed to get them to play around with their abilities a bit, Misaka had created different electrical charges and manipulated them in different forms while I had Misaki flounder around in my mind a bit. I hadn't let her free in there of course, I had no reason to trust her to such an extent, instead I had established two separate lines of thought, one was meant for her to access as practice, the other was a threat that should she stray from the thoughts I had allowed her in she'd see nothing but fire.

In the end we had accomplished nothing, their control over what abilities they knew was exceptional and I doubted I could hope to teach them anything there. I was honestly struggling to figure out how to teach them what they needed to do to become a level six without simply showing them my inner world. Then again I could always show them, even if the girls did tell others I doubt the info would leak beyond academy city and I wouldn't be staying here long enough to need my trump card, hopefully.

Sighing I grabbed a hand towel and strode out of the bathroom drying my face completely. I found myself in a simple three room apartment, a bathroom, a small bedroom, and a combined kitchen dining room. The politicians of the city had wanted to provide me with far more lavish lodgings but I had declined them. Not only to avoid the attention a larger apartment would bring but also because setting up and securing my privacy would be far more difficult in a larger area. Speaking of which.

I sighed as I reached up to the wall and grabbed a miniscule object. Smaller than my finger tip was a tiny camera, hidden in a shadow of the room. I moved to the desk in my bedroom before pulling open a drawer and tossing it in, with the dozen others that I had found. It seemed that these people weren't so afraid of me as to refrain from spying. Looking out the nearby window I noted the darkened sky, lit only by the numerous buildings I could see. Turning I glanced at the clock on the opposite wall, it was almost time for me to go, I had one final meeting today.

Grabbing a phone Yomikawa had given me, my wallet, and a key to the apartment before leaving, locking the door with my key as I went.

I had already met with two of the three level fives I had been asked to work with, the third though was somewhat harder to get a hold of than the other two. Not because he lived in isolation, or because he kept himself hidden, or any other reason. He was simply the most, disobedient, of the three. Based on what I had been told he didn't really like to work with others and was even worse with following orders. So it had taken some time to get him to agree to meet with me and even then he had refused to come along with the other two.

Exiting my building I found a black car waiting for me. Walking up to the passenger door I opened it and sat down to look at who my driver would be, surprisingly it was someone I recognized. "Yomikawa-san?"

"That would be me Emiya-san. What were you expecting someone else?"

"No." I shook my head as I spoke, the surprise at seeing one of the few people I knew by name in the city fading. "I just didn't expect you to be my driver, I would've thought you'd have something more important to do as a member of Anti-skill."

"More important than taking care of the only level six in the world?" I opened my mouth to counter her argument before shutting it as I realized that I couldn't. I wasn't really used to being such an important person. "I've been appointed as your handler, the city politicians figure you'd be more comfortable with someone you know and I'm the closest thing they've got."

"You don't have an issue with the job though? You wouldn't rather be doing your Anti-skill work?" As I spoke Yomikawa pulled away from the curb and began driving towards our destination.

"Driving you around is way better than doing paperwork. And if anything important comes up I'll get a call." She held up a small phone with one hand as she spoke, before tossing it back into the car's center console. "So don't feel like you need to hesitate, anything I can help you with just ask."

"Alright, in that case anything you can tell me about the kid I'm going to meet?" I wasn't going to hesitate to use this resource for information, Yomikawa was a senior member of the cities military so there was no way she wouldn't have information on the more dangerous espers.

"You should've gotten a file on him right? There's not much I can add to that."

"I did, but it didn't tell me much aside from his powers and some vague history. It didn't even give me a name, just his epithet."

"No one really knows his real name, I'm not sure why actually. He may not have one or it could a top level secret, I've got no idea." Well there went that, I had thought it may have been a printing error but I guess it didn't really matter.

"Well what about his personality? The file described him as aggressive and disobedient but that was all it said."

"Well that's pretty much who he is. I've never met him myself but he doesn't really seem to like people from what I've heard. He has a lot of pride in his title of the strongest and likes to pick fights with anyone if he thinks it'll make him stronger."

"What do you think the odds are that he'll attack me?"

"Eh, seven out of ten." I winced at her words.

Walking away from the car I made my way to the center of the docks, I wasn't sure if the boy was here at first but then I caught his scent. It was a strange smell, I had never found anything quite like it even in all my years. If I had to call it something I'd say it smelled like energy. Not any singular type of energy, like electricity or fire, or even something more general like kinetic energy or chemical energy, just energy. I suppose that made sense considering his powers.

Rounding a corner I saw the boy. He had no name, or at least none I was given simply known as the Accelerator. He was an albino, though not the first I had met he was the first natural one I had encountered, the others all being either half or fully homunculus. He wore simple black jeans with a belt and a shirt with white and bluish grey stripes. He carried himself as if he didn't care what others thought of him, slouched over and with his hands in his pockets and earbuds in, seemingly ignoring the world around him. It was only as he caught sight of me that he took his earbuds out and looked towards me.

"You, you're the new level six that everyone is flipping their shit about right?" Though I didn't really approve of his language I had heard far worse in my time, thought hearing cursing from a school kid was very different from hearing it from a scarred soldier.

"That would be me. And you're the Accelerator, the strongest level five of Academy City correct?" He nodded at my words, silent as he took in my own appearance, probably assessing me in the way only those experienced in battle were capable of.

"You don't look like that big of a deal. I wonder, if I kill you will it make me a level six?" The words were spoken softly, little threat was put into them, but it wasn't the words that had my attention but the bloodlust that came afterwards. I had fought and killed many supernatural beings, yet in my life there had only been two things that had let off more bloodlust than this boy, Herakles, the Berserker of the Fifth Holy Grail War, and Gae Bolg, the Barbed Spear that Pierces Death, the Noble Phantasm of Cu Chulainn the Lancer of the Fifth Holy Grail War. And that blood lust was my first warning to the oncoming attack.

He pushed off the ground behind him with little to no strength, were he a normal human he would have gone less than half a meter with the strength he put into his leg. Yet somehow he managed to amplify that force until he was moving towards me with a speed I hadn't seen outside of Servants and Dead Apostles. It was only the distance between us and my own preparedness that saved me.

"Trace on!" As I spoke my circuits began to flood with prana and it was instantly drained into the form of the weapon I chose to trace. "Rho Aias." The seven petaled shield blossomed before me, spreading out in between the two of us as he rammed into it. I had no idea just how powerful Accelerator was, I had been told he was the strongest in the city before my arrival as the first level six and what I was told of his powers had me believing he might still be. He had the ability to control any kind of force, vector manipulation they called it. He could reflect or redirect any force in any way he desired so long as he had contact with it. I watched as he impacted the shield of Ajax the first petal didn't even crack but I refused to relax.

"Oh, what's this? It didn't break, I'll have to fix that." As he spoke he drew his hand back before punching the shield. It wasn't a strong blow, or at least it shouldn't have been. It was halfhearted at best, I had seen street gang members throw better punches, but when his fist impacted Rho Aias the first petal cracked, and it wasn't done there. I watched with morbid curiosity as the shield began to vibrate, cracks widening and spreading until the first petal broke under the strain and the process began again on the second.

I shook off my surprise and began planning my next course of action. He would break through the Aias before too much longer and I didn't have the prana to just keep producing more of them. I needed a weapon that he'd be unable to control the force of with his abilities, it didn't take long before I found several weapons that could work. Spreading my hands out, one on each side I began tracing just as Accelerator broke the third petal of Rho Aias. Prana flowed into the constructs of the weapons I had chosen and in each hand formed a single sword, Kanshou and Bakuya the married swords of China, two chinese falchions, one black as the night sky and the other as white as ivory. The two blades would seek one another out if ever separated, I threw the two blades to each of my sides, aiming so that they'd meet at a point behind my attacker. I then traced a second set of the swords, noting how the first pair's trajectory changed as they were attracted by the new set.

I waited until I knew my timing with both pairs would be perfect before throwing the second pair straight towards Accelerator. As he broke the fifth petal I allowed the entire construct to fade into prana, the shock of seeing the target of his attention shatter earlier than expected lasted long enough for my swords to reach him. He raised both hands and knocked away second pair that was approaching him from the front with his esper ability, the second he was able to do the same with despite not seeing them. But even as the swords flew off in different directions and began seeking each other out again I noted he hadn't come away from the encounter unscathed. Along the backs of his hands were two long scratches, blood already flowing out of them to clot the wounds, I was sure there must've been similar, possibly worse wounds across his back. As I had expected adjusting for the unnatural pull that the swords exerted on each other had slowed down the accelerators reaction time and caused his new wounds.

I doubted the same trick would work twice, and even if it did it would get less and less effectual as time went on. But now I had him on the lookout for my swords and his attention would be split between me and any copies of Kanshou and Bakuya that I made. I went ahead and traced a third copy of the swords, using them to manipulate the other two pairs so that they'd all impact the esper before throwing them towards him. Of course my opponent didn't simply stand still as I did this, with a manic grin on his face he charged towards me once again, barely slowing to bat away the black and white blades I had thrown at him. Predictably he launched them away at a trajectory exactly opposite to the direction they approached from and this time with no wounds to show for it. However as he had matched my expectations I could be assured that all three pairs would come back and strike him again.

Placing one foot behind me I set myself in a stance I was less familiar with than those I used with swords and began tracing my next weapon. Gae Dearg, the crimson rose of exorcism formed in my hands. One of the lances of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, it was capable of piercing and ignoring any magical defense, and while I couldn't yet be one hundred percent sure that it'd work on esper abilities until I was sure they truly were reality marbles or some other kind of magic and not just science foreign to the world I was born in, it was still my best bet against the Accelerator.

As he approached I stabbed my lacne forwards, aiming to impale him through the chest. In a display of caution I was sure he wouldn't have had if I hadn't wounded him earlier he stopped his momentum impossibly sudden and avoided the tip. This too was within my expectations, of course he'd be more than capable of halting or reversing his own movement at a moment's notice, however he had stopped just short of the reach of my weapon so when my stab turned into a throw he was unprepared to dodge it. Most opponent's wouldn't dare to discard their weapon when their opponent was so close, but I could simply create new weapons at any moment, so as long as I gained some advantage by discarding my weapons I would readily release them. As Gae Dearg flew towards my opponent I could see the twisting of air as some kind of barrier was pierced as if it didn't exist. The chock on my opponent's face was clear, even my earlier blades hadn't completely ignored his abilities like this, it was only his trained reactions that saved him from impalement as he twisted his body and managed to get away with nothing more then a deep cut on his side.

By the time the spear had passed him I was already on him with a new copy, stabbing down on my shorter opponent attempting to skewer his leg and restrict his movements. He backed away from my attack attempting to jump back and mae space with his unnatural speed. He found himself trapped, however in a cage of steel as all three copies of Kanshou and Bakuya sought out each other with him directly in their path. With his focus split between the swords and my spear I saw a chance, unfortunately it was plain to see that his eyes were locked on the tip of Gae Dearg, and any attack that used the point of the weapon would be bound to fail. So instead I attacked with the butt of the weapon, bring the shaft around with a spin I brought the end of the weapon towards my opponent's face in a technique meant for use with a staff. The blow to the head dazed Accelerator and caused him to suffer several more scratches as all three copies of the married blades descended upon him.

Despite his wounds though he still managed to escape my trap, his right hand going to his face to slow the bleeding of his nose. I didn't chase him, he was far too fast with his abilities and pursuing him would only tire me out. Instead I stopped where I was and took up a stance, with spear point down in front on me, prepare to raise it to attack or defend as necessary. I dispelled the copies of Kanshou and Bakuya I had made instead of risking them rebounding off the ground or each other and hitting me. I watched as Accelerator used his own abilities to stop the blood flow from his wounds, forcing the blood to clot despite not yet drying as he removed his hand from his face.

"You're pretty good. You've seen a lot of fighting in your life haven't you?" I neglected to answer his question, words spoken on the battlefield were just wasted breath. Apparently though that was answer enough for my enemy. "So you have, you're skilled I'll give you that. But you're not powerful, honestly you're pretty weak." Even if I had wanted to deny him I really couldn't there. I had never been particularly powerful, my prana reserves had only even been above average and even when my body had been stronger I had been physically weaker than most of my opponents even with reinforcement. Even if I did deploy my reality marble I couldn't maintain if for more than half an hour even with full reserves. And that was if I didn't use any reinforcement or use prana to activate the effects of my swords. In the end I was weak, and it was only by skill and strategy that I had survived so far.

"There's no way that someone as weak as you can be a level six. Those idiots must've gotten something wrong again. Even if you can beat me you don't have the power to be a level five even, not to mention six." He scoffed as he spoke and I could tell he was ready to fight again. The lull in combat had been useful, it allowed me to catch my breath and plan out further tactics. My opponent had apparently also thought of new tactics as this time he stood tall and far away instead of attempting to close in on me and crush me to a pulp. I wasn't sure what he was doing at first, I knew he was doing something I could smell it as he used his abilities on something. It was only at the last moment before he fired that I figured it out, he was manipulating the air current around him to create bullets out of the air itself before launching them at me. I raised Gae Dearg in defense, relying on its abilities to dispel the attacks as it came into contact with them and began running in a circle around him to throw off his aim.. I managed to block one, then two, then five and eight, and twelve and twenty, but I couldn't keep this up forever and for all I knew my opponent could.

"My body is made of swords." As I finished the chant I threw Gae Dearg at Accelerator using the reprieve as he slowed his attack to dodge the projectile to turn and run towards this time. As the next volley came I ignored any kind of defense, relying on my magecraft to protect myself. When the first bullet of air impacted me I felt it tear skin and jar my body with the force it carried, but it failed to pierce my flesh. I could see the confusion on my opponent as his attacks failed to turn me into a bloody mess, it was only cleared away as he noted the glint of steel that shone from where his attacks had landed.

The body of swords was a strange technique, by replacing my flesh with swords I could repel any attack short of those capable of puncturing steel, and even then the attacks damage was lessened. The tradeoff however was that the more I moved the more the blades would tear into my flesh, shredding my body and sometimes even organs as they shifted. Normally I used it as a counter to gunfire, anything short of a high caliber sniper round would ricochet off of the blades and do no more damage than tearing skin, his air bullets were no different, despite having more force behind them than standard machine gun fire they were made up of air in the end and lacked the power to pierce my steel.

As I approached rather than keep distance and continue to pester me with attacks he stood his ground, leaning forwards like a predator, the comparison in my mind was only strengthened by the toothy grin he gave me. When I got close enough that he stopped launching the air bullets I allowed most of the blades to fade from my body, only keeping those that covered the wounds I had received while charging Accelerator to prevent them from bleeding too much or becoming a weakness for my opponent to exploit. When I reached striking distance I traced myself a new Gae Dearg and began attacking, an upwards slash was my first attack, Accelerator took a step back to dodge and it was when his foot hit the ground, as the tip of the cursed spear came back around to seek his flesh, that he made his move.

From the ground in between us rose a pillar of earth, it wasn't a clean cut stone like you would see as a pillar in some fancy architecture but a rough hewn shape jutting from the ground, vaguely rectangular. Accelerator must've used his ability to manipulate the force when he stomped on the ground until he could use it to raise this chunk of stone out of the ground as a makeshift shield. It worked too, even as Gae Dearg bit into the stone and it lost its unnatural force the stone itself still sat there. The stone itself was as mundane as ground I stood on and until it finished sinking back into the earth from where it came it would continue to block my attacks. Still though, that didn't mean I couldn't use it to my advantage.

Running around my opponent I placed the stone he had risen between the two of us to block his sight. I couldn't see him either but that hindered me less as I could still sense his location and his use of his abilities by the scent he gave off. Performing two quick traces I launched first Kanshou then Bakuya around the pillar, relying on their powers and my own skill with predicting their trajectories to hit my foe. I had to launch them one at a time with my left hand since I didn't want to discard Gae Dearg or slow myself down by retracing it or even picking it back up, but I was confident both blades would find their mark. I took the split second that Accelerator's attention would be on the blades flying out from behind the pillar to leap over what little of it was still above ground and perform a descending strike on my opponent.

Accelerator leaned to the side, turning a blow that would have ended him to a cut along his side. As I fell he reached out to punch me, and while I wouldn't normally be too worried about an opponent punching me after seeing what he had been able to do to Rho Aias I wasn't about to let him get his hands on me. Rather than on my feet I instead allowed my body to hit the ground and rolled away, out of my opponent's grasp. Jumping back up to my feet I charged Accelerator again, spear tip lashing out. Again a pillar of earth rose to block my attack, this one made with nothing more than a shift of his foot but with much less girth to show for it. This one too blocked my attack and I had to use the shaft of Gae Dearg to block an oncoming fist as my foe counter attacked.

We fell into a pattern of exchanging and blocking blows as we moved around the dock yard. All the while I was searching the Blade Works for a weapon that could end this. I needed something that could ignore or break through both that protection of his and the pillars of earth that he was using as shields. I could always use Gae Bolg, the cursed spear would find his heart no matter how many barriers he put up and I doubted he'd be able to halt it with his powers. But I was hesitant to kill him even now, my dream of saving everyone wouldn't let me, and even if I had failed many times before and had taken too many lives to count I was loathe to add any more to their number, and with only my life at risk I couldn't justify killing the boy so instantly lethal force wasn't an option.

Pulling away for a second I threw my most recent copy of Gae Dearg to gain myself time. I didn't hit Accelerator this time as he had already experienced this before but that was fine. Holding my hand out I began tracing the sword I needed. A massive chunk of earth appeared in my hand, vaguely hewn into the shade of a sword with a blade and a handle. Berserker's ax-sword could barely be called a proper sword but the skill with which he wielded it was undeniable, even driven mad by rage he was still one of the most skilled swordsmen to exist in my world and it showed in the sword's history. But it was one special skill I sought out from the sword, the ability to replicate his Noble Phantasm, Nine Lives: The Hundred Shooting Heads. It was a technique originally performed with a bow that Herakles used to slay the Lernaean Hydra, he had managed to adapt it however to work to a lesser degree with any weapon, and by using his sword I could use my own form of it, Nine Lives Blade Works.

Charging the albino esper I carried the colossal sword as if it weighed nothing by copying Berserker's strength. I came within striking distance of Accelerator before he got over the shock of seeing me wield such an immense weapon. Though he raised a pillar of earth in defense it was shattered by the godly strength I was imitating, replicating the skill of Herakles I struck my opponent nine consecutive times faster than the speed of sound. While I wasn't sure if Accelerator would be capable of deflecting one or two supersonic strikes, I was willing to bet the fight that he'd find it impossible to fully deflect nine attacks that all hit faster than he could think, and I would have won that bet.

I felt the weapon jar in my hands as Accelerator attempted to reflect each attack, but with each strike less and less of the force behind my sword was stopped. When the last strike landed Accelerator was launched back by the collective force of my nine attacks. He landed on his back and I could hear him give out a groan of pain before falling into unconsciousness. I sighed in relief as I allowed the ax-sword I held to fade into prana before I began checking over my downed opponent. Normally when I used Nine Lives Blade Works I chose to target nine fatal points on my opponent's body, this time however I had changed my target to the areas where I'd do minimal damage so while Accelerator probably had over a dozen broken bones none of his wounds would be fatal.

My own physical condition wasn't much better, three ribs broken from the air bullets I had taken, blood seeping out of numerous cuts where the body of swords had shredded me, and the worst of it was my arm. Replicating the enormous strength of Berserker did not come without repercussions, the muscles in my arm were ruined, blood seeped out of the torn and ruined skin on my arm. I very rarely used the technique due to the damage it caused to my own body but it was undoubtedly effective.

I pulled the phone out of my pocket, somewhat fumbling as I did since it was in my right pocket and I had to use my uninjured left arm to do it. I was surprised that it had survived the encounter but I suppose they must've made them tougher in Academy city, whether due to the rampant super powered teenagers or the technology or both. Opening it I dialed the only number currently in the phone.

"Yeah, the fight is over. No, no one died, but unless he has some very enhanced healing Accelerator is going to need to go to a hospital." I glanced down to my arm as it hung limply at my side. "I will too actually." I leaned down and grabbed the unconscious boy and slung him over my back in a fireman's carry. "No, I can walk to the car myself, I just need you to help me get the kid in. Yes, we're taking him to the hospital, what else are we supposed to do leave him here?" I turned back around same corner I had approached from and spotted the car. I waved my good arm as I approached and I saw Yomikawa exit the car as the line on my phone went dead.

I slipped the phone off my shoulder and managed to stow it back in my pocket as I walked. "It looks like the kid gave you some trouble old man, did your back start hurting or something?" I gave her a flat gaze as I approached, remaining silent. She merely grinned and opened the rear doors so I could lay Accelerator on the back seats. "Ah, now the two of you are gonna get blood all over my car."

"I'm sure your superiors will be more than happy to pay to get it cleaned for you. It's a working expense after all." I knew she was messing with me, but sometimes the best way to handle such things was to go along with them. I slid into the front passenger seat "Come on let's go, I'd like to get all this bleeding stopped." My arm was dripping blood like a wet rag and I didn't want to use body of swords to stop the bleeding since it'd likely damage my muscles even worse.

I slid the boy onto the back seat before shutting the car door and moving to the passenger side door. I opened it with my good arm and sat down. "Alright, to the hospital." I spoke up as I buckled my seat belt, and a moment later we were moving away.


End file.
